Rear Axle crash and Toyota loses

[TrexRunnerGirl]

Have you all seen this? Wonder if it will prompt Toyota to do anything. I know about the bad frame rust from y'all here. Sad because it was a 99 that broke and crashed. What I don't understand is why she was trapped for 2 hours.


https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2018/toyota-loses-12-million-4runner-axle-lawsuit.shtml

 

[Mark_BC]

This came up here before a few months ago. There's something fishy. South Carolina 4runners don't rust. Maybe it was from somewhere else. If the control arm separated from the frame, sure that could cause loss of control but that is the owner's fault for not doing maintenance or regular inspections. He!!, you don't even need to do regular inspections to find that. Once every 2 years should alert you to a problem. If, as they say, Toyota has a reputation for frames rusting out and causing accidents, then the onus is on the owner to watch out for that. IMO of course. But the law may see things differently. I honestly don't understand why Toyota is not galvanising frames by now.

 

[TheDurk]

I have survived this particular situation and I know what happens. If the control arm separates you can drive straight forward just fine and even do mild turns. You can brake fairly hard with no problem. What you cannot do is accelerate, because then weird stuff really does happen. I was able to drive the rig 30 miles to a welder and back before I decided to do a frame swap. This story just does not ring true to me.

What does ring true is not seeing it beforehand. Mine rusted from the inside out. Until the bracket ripped off, the frame looked just fine.

See link in my sig for details and more pics on what happened to mine.

 

[TrexRunnerGirl]

Wow!! Glad you’re ok.
You’d think Toyota would still get the message about the frames and do something. With this lawsuit it may open their eyes since it cost them.
I’m going to try to treat mine so it lasts as long as possible.

 

[feta]

same experience

Previous vehicle, 1996 drivers side rear control arm broke off as I was going 60 around a long banking turn. It rusted from the inside out, no way to see it before it broke. I drove home sideways-ish with the steering wheel at an odd angle. There was a small hole under driver foot well long before that.

Pittsburgh truck, outside year round, I neglected keeping it from rusting, 189k.

Xmas day 2014, it could have been real bad.

 

[T4R2014]

I don’t understand why you guys are talking about rust if it says that “Toyota manufactured the axle too weak to handle routine driving because the metal was overheated”. Whoever wrote this threw in some random quote of a guy that let his frame rust. It sounds more like Toyota needs to be giving us free full float axles.

 

[dogtail]

Wow!! Glad you’re ok.
You’d think Toyota would still get the message about the frames and do something. With this lawsuit it may open their eyes since it cost them.
I’m going to try to treat mine so it lasts as long as possible.

Whatever point it is at now, rust can be totally easily halted 100%. Don't even need to grind and paint if you don't have time, it will be "shelled". In simple terms in a nutshell, cover everything like a glazed donut with RP -your frame inside and out along with inside drain holes of rockers, doors, hatch, hood and whole underbelly. Can do in under 30 minutes every season. Very important - don't drive thru high pressure car wash, it will take off coating, just spray booth wash top. Anyone on this very informative forum should not have rust progression.

 

[kolelt]

I don’t understand why you guys are talking about rust if it says that “Toyota manufactured the axle too weak to handle routine driving because the metal was overheated”. Whoever wrote this threw in some random quote of a guy that let his frame rust. It sounds more like Toyota needs to be giving us free full float axles.

And rear disc brakes.

 

[T4R2014]

And rear disc brakes.

I hate those drums so much. I swear they need adjustment at every oil change.

 

[gamefreakgc]

What's rust? Never seen it before.

 

[beefsix]

What's rust? Never seen it before.

I believe it's when metal oxidizes, but I haven't seen it since I came out west. Starting to think it might have all been in my head...

 

[2ndhandyotaman]

I'm just not following the logic that Toyota should be held responsible for rotting frames on SUVs that are all at least 16 years old by now. Uncle Sam won't hold Jeep accountable for 10 year old Wrangler frames that rot away in a very similar manner, which oddly enough were also manufactured by the Dana corporation.

 

[repo]

From the other thread I read it wasn't from rust it was from the axle shaft itself snapping. Maybe from ignoring bad bearings? Or a bearings replacement and they nicked or over-heated the shaft to get the retainers off? Loose flange bolts? Who knows? But what they are trying to claim is it was a manufacturing or metal defect with the shaft.

 

[T4R2014]

That’s South Carolina for you. With that said, still a tragedy. The outcome just doesn’t add up to me.

 

[A2toHgt]

That’s South Carolina for you. With that said, still a tragedy. The outcome just doesn’t add up to me.

Why does it not add up? The article mentions many reports to NHTSA about this very issue. Are all 60 of these people lying?

 

[T4R2014]

Why does it not add up? The article mentions many reports to NHTSA about this very issue. Are all 60 of these people lying?

According to attorneys for the plaintiffs, records show that 60 incidents occurred between 1987 and 2011

Ok, 1987 to 2011. That is every 4Runner generation. Quite certain that if the semi-float 8 inch Toyota diff can handle all these applications with only 60 reports out of millions of 4Runners(and pickups, and Tacomas, and surely many other platforms), then it is one of the most proven around. There is no design flaw, and whoever came up with that whole metal overheating claim has no business discussing this.

Personally, I think some idiot technician messed up a rear axle seal job. Stop taking so many things at face value.

 

[GSTMike]

Regardless on anyone's thoughts on the issue or issues that caused the crash and whether it's Toyota at fault or not it's a tragic situation where a young lady (I have 3 daughters older than that) not only lost her life but suffered for a couple of hours inside the vehicle.

Given the article states an eye witness account of something in the rear end failing while the person was driving straight, it's really going to come down to one of three things,

1) Mechanical maintenance neglect
2) Mechanical negligence on the owners/whoever worked on the vehicle
3) Manufacturers defect

I'm not going to debate which it was as who knows could really be all of the above.

 

[A2toHgt]

Regardless on anyone's thoughts on the issue or issues that caused the crash and whether it's Toyota at fault or not it's a tragic situation where a young lady (I have 3 daughters older than that) not only lost her life but suffered for a couple of hours inside the vehicle.

Given the article states an eye witness account of something in the rear end failing while the person was driving straight, it's really going to come down to one of three things,

1) Mechanical maintenance neglect
2) Mechanical negligence on the owners/whoever worked on the vehicle
3) Manufacturers defect

I'm not going to debate which it was as who knows could really be all of the above.

If you click on the link given in the article, you'll see many of the complaints are very specific- the rear control arm mount rusts away and fails. The problem is well known enough that there are multiple kits you can buy to fix it. This points to a manufacturing defect.

 

[T4R2014]

If you click on the link given in the article, you'll see many of the complaints are very specific- the rear control arm mount rusts away and fails. The problem is well known enough that there are multiple kits you can buy to fix it. This points to a manufacturing defect.

Can you re-read? Whoever wrote this article is just stupid. The court case was won because of “weak axles”. Nowhere does it pertain to frame rust. What happened here is the idiot writing this article simply googled something like “4Runner axle failure” which is bound to show a bunch of frame rust threads and pics.

This article is inconsistent.

 

[T4R2014]

Ok guys, I found this after some googling.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/rear-axle-shaft-broke-now-what-140792/

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/183175-rear-axle-broke-off.html

But, these are still lifted applications. I don't see these cases being Toyota's fault if the owner lifted the vehicle and installed anything past 265/70/16 tires. Still, I do find it dangerous that the weak spot is past the area where the shaft bolts to the housing, rather than where the splines go into the third member.

With that said, starting to see more merit into this case. Some of you guys still need to learn how to read through things properly. And compare sources. The report on the Beasley Allen website has NO mention of corrosion being the issue. So guys, hopefully Toyota issues a recall and we get new axle shafts with new seals and everything!!